Become a Fan

Support the Revolution!

Connect with WDR

WDR Shirts

Who Dey Revolution Manifesto

Preamble

IN THIS TIME of perpetual Cincinnati Bengals incompetence and futility, with zero playoff wins in the nineteen seasons since the WhoDeyRevolution Godfather, Paul Brown, passed away in 1991 and handed the team to his fortunate son, the Despot, Mike Brown;

Introduction

WE, the members of the Who Dey Revolution, in our fervent dedication to the Cincinnati Bengals and fanatical desire to transform our hometown team into perpetual Super Bowl contenders, call for a popular revolution of fans to demand comprehensive reform to the managerial decisions and approach of Cincinnati Bengals ownership, management, staff and players, and hereby call for the adoption of the following Who Dey Revolution Manifesto:

Manifesto Demands

THAT the Mike Brown, Katie Blackburn, Marvin Lewis, along with every other member of the Bengals management, staff and personnel, state publicly to all Bengals fans, “I will do everything in my power to help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl;”

THAT Mike Brown will hire a general manager, drastically expand the scouting department and relinquish all control of player personnel;

THAT all training, rehabilitation and medical facilities are considered best-in-class compared to other NFL teams;

THAT the management fill the team only with players who fit the system, both mentally and physically, and are not reluctant to makes changes to player personnel when needed, regardless of cost or loyalty concerns;

THAT offensive and defensive line depth is considered the top priority for all player personnel decisions;

THAT all decisions made by ownership, management, staff and players, both on and off the field, are judged only by this criterion: “Does this help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl?”

October 13, 2010

Geoff Hoblaw's Hob Blog: We Need To Work On Some Things And Get Better Edition

But don't just take fake Peter King's word for it, go get confirmation straight from the source. That's right, that warped funhouse of misinformation and insanity Bengals.com. Normally it's dangerous to walk amongst its mirrored hallways of infintely reflected madness, but it's the bye week. So fuck it. Let's take a stroll.

Are the Bengals concerned about giving away two of only a small handful of games where they will likely enter as favorites?

We’ll watch the film and everybody is going to see something they could have done better, which in turn makes everybody work harder.

We have heard this literally after every loss since things started downhill in the 2nd half of 2009, and probably earlier. For example last week Marv said "But that’s where we are, and we’ve got to work at the positives of it and do more things right for a longer period of time." Easy part of your schedule just ended. Lockout looms next year. There is no more longer period of time to wait to improve.

On Palmer's play:

“I’m not going to put the blame on anybody,” [Brat] said.

No worries. Cause I put it on you. And Carson. See how easy it is to blame? Check out the tag to this column, Brat. I even try to pin Katrina on you, you ass.

On the awful 3rd & 13 interception:

The route ended up inside further than it should be, so the ball ended up further outside than it should be. When the quarterbacks throw it, they throw it prior to the break. The ball was still right there.

You tell me why on Earth TO should not break the route a little more inside than might be called for in the playbook and why Carson shouldn't ere towards aiming it inside since the only defenders that exist in this play are to the outside. Look at the screen shot, the ball is still in Carson's hand as TO breaks anyway (contrary to Brat's point) and he can see this. IF BRAT IS WATCHING THE VIDEO AND BLAMING THE ROUTE ON T.O. HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THIS MAN LOOKING AT.

Now the playcall was ill-advised and lacked any strategery or coherence in the first place given the previous repeated successful pounding of Benson prior to the play and it's high risk nature...but still, look at that photo. Sure looks like an easy pitch and catch for a first down. At this point, despite the idiocy of the play in the first place, it was headed for success. What ended up dooming it was the inaccurate and somewhat late throw. But sure, Brat, let's chalk it up to TO's route.

About the playcall on the interception:

As they always do before every critical situation, Lewis and Bratkowski conferred on the headsets when it was third-and 13, 2:28 left, the Bengals up, 21-14, and the Bucs with no timeouts left.

"Bob?"

\crickets chirping

I only wish they had not conferred. Here is the conclusion they actually came to:

"We knew if we got a first down, the game was over,” Bratkowski said. “So that’s the decision that was made. The thinking was if we complete that ball, the game’s over.”

Notice the complete focus on reward and none on risk. No consideration at all is given to, what if our shaky, innaccurate-to-date QB throws an INT on a long pass play the defense will expect? Or, what if we get a lucky first down by handing it to the highly successful Benson and at worst make Josh Freeman go 70 yards on the road with no Timeouts against Zimmer's defense?

TO's been around some great football minds. TO's also been around the Bengals.

Let's close it out with more pointless discussion about establishing an identity:

We still want to be a running team. We ran for 148 yesterday and that qualifies, yet have enough balance to get the chunk plays,” Bratkowski said.

How about just designing an offense based on your offensive talent and the defense you face? How about doing what works and not just deciding to do something for the sake of doing it?

As you can see, the Bengals appear real concerned and filled with urgency to turn this season around.

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

They might have thrown the ball on 2nd down. Or on the previous drive. But no, after 8 run/dink plays Bratworst suddenly realizes that if they get one first down they win. If you're going to throw on 3rd and 13 there you go to the sidelines where they don't expect it. Wouldn't have mattered if they go out of bounds on a completion if they get a first down on the play since there would be less than 2 and a half minutes left, 1st down, and other guys out of timeouts.

Bratworst's a friggin moron. He won't work again in the NFL. Like Dave Shula. They should work together at the steakhouse.

"'We knew if we got a first down, the game was over,' Bratkowski said."

Wow, Gomer, it sure is good we got us a edumakated guy running the offense to figure out hard stuff like that.

(smack head on desk. repeatedly.)

It sure would be nice to see Bobbo take this approach in, say, the first half. String a few of those new-fangled 'first down' thingies together and you'll probably end up with a TD. Put a few TDs together and SHAZAM!! The game is over! And without having to do something stupid in the final minutes.

I hereby and forevermore shorten Bobbo's job title from Offensive Coordinator to just "Offensive".

Let's leave politics out of the discussion, huh? The Democrats have been in charge for two years now, and shit's still fucked up. It's not a Republican thing or a Democrat thing, it's a "same old politics as usual" thing, and it has no place on a football blog.

Marvin-speak is just a slightly different flavor of Dave Shula speak or Dick Lebeau speak or Hobspeak. "We'll get that cleaned up" followed by -- wait for it -- another 8 or 9 pre-snap penalties next frigging Sunday. Cincinnati Groundhogs, now in their 20th season.

It's funny when some of the other sites Bengals fans always write "we have loads of talent" "if we could only execute" but actually the talent level's not that awesome and even the Bengals thought so last year, viewing themselves as the players nobody else wanted. The only position where the talent level is way up there, right now, is CB. And if JJo leaves then they've got no positions with way up there talent.